Chương 7
Attached was the Benton Safety invoice Nia had found through the bookkeeping service.
The actual inspection report was not attached, but the invoice carried a work-order number. That number matched the footer on the sealed original.
Five boring documents, Elena thought.
No magic door.
Outside chambers, Miriam touched her elbow. “Don’t smile.”
“I’m not.”
“You are internally.”
“How can you tell?”
“Your shoulders dropped.”
Daniel Kessler approached from the other end of the hall. He no longer represented Victor personally, but he remained part of Hale Benton’s Riverpoint team. His face looked thinner than it had before the arrest.
“You’ve destroyed this case,” he told Elena.
Miriam stepped between them. “Interesting opening.”
Kessler ignored her. “Our client relied on counsel. The privileged review will show any document decisions were made by Hale, not Riverpoint.”
“Your client decided not to replace a fire-control board,” Elena said.
“Based on a maintenance recommendation they were told was preliminary.”
“You mean the recommendation Victor removed.”
“I mean the recommendation your witness stole and possibly altered.”
Miriam said, “Careful.”
Kessler lowered his voice. “You think he’s a whistleblower? Adrian Cole changed document codes. He drafted inaccurate privilege descriptions. He signed declarations. If Victor goes down, Cole goes with him.”
“He knows.”
“No, he thinks you’ll save him.”
“I never promised that.”
“Then you used him.”
Elena felt the answer rise too quickly. “You worked beside him.”
“I didn’t ask him to commit a felony.”
“Did you ask why routine maintenance records disappeared?”
Kessler’s eyes shifted toward Miriam, then back. “You have no idea what it’s like inside that firm.”
“No,” Elena said. “I left.”
He flinched.
It was small, but it told her he had wanted to leave, too.
Kessler walked away.
Miriam waited until he entered the elevator. “You enjoyed that.”
“A little.”
“Try not to.”
“I’m human.”
“That defense has limits.”
The disciplinary committee scheduled Elena’s preliminary hearing for the same week as the evidence hearing.
The committee’s letter used neutral language, but the questions were plain. Had she encouraged an employee to remove documents? Had she knowingly received privileged material? Had she made misleading public statements? Had she used the sealed warrant to create prejudice against Victor and Riverpoint?
Miriam hired ethics counsel for the firm.
Elena hired separate counsel after Miriam insisted.
The lawyer, Simone Park, was thirty-nine and spoke so softly that people leaned toward her and revealed more than they intended.
During their first meeting, Simone placed a printed copy of Elena’s messages on the table.
“Which sentence worries you?” she asked.
“You know which.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“Bring me anything that keeps them from lying about those deaths.”
“Why did you write it?”
“I was angry.”
“At whom?”
“Victor. Riverpoint. Everyone who had spent months pretending a missing document had never existed.”
“Were you asking Adrian to bring documents?”
“I didn’t know it was Adrian.”
“That is not an answer.”
Elena looked away. Simone waited.
“Yes,” Elena said. “I wanted the documents.”
“Did you want him to take them unlawfully?”
“No.”
“Did you care enough about how he obtained them?”
Elena’s jaw tightened.
Simone folded her hands. “This process will be unpleasant because they will ask the same question until you answer the one underneath it.”
“What is the one underneath it?”
“Whether you believed the moral importance of the case entitled you to be careless with rules you expect other lawyers to follow.”
Elena felt heat rise beneath her collar.
“I told him to get independent counsel.”
“You did.”
“I told him not to alter anything.”
“You did.”
“I disclosed the first page.”
“You did.”
“Then why are we pretending I ordered a theft?”
“We aren’t. We are deciding whether you can admit imperfection without turning it into innocence.”
Elena sat back.
She disliked Simone immediately.
By the end of the meeting, she trusted her more than she wanted to.
Adrian withdrew his cooperation two days later.
His lawyer notified the prosecutor that Adrian would invoke his right against self-incrimination at the evidence hearing unless he received broader immunity. The state offered protection for obstruction-related offenses but refused to immunize unrelated billing fraud the investigation had uncovered at Hale Benton.
Adrian had charged personal expenses to client matters.
The amounts were not enormous. Hotel rooms. Meals. A plane ticket for his daughter to visit her grandmother. Taken together, they were enough to end his career and possibly put him in jail.
Elena learned this from the prosecutor, who sounded disgusted by Adrian’s timing.
“He wants immunity for everything now,” the prosecutor said.
“Did Victor know about the expenses?”
“We believe so.”
“Did he use them to control Adrian?”
“We cannot prove that.”
“Ask Adrian.”
“He stopped answering questions.”
Elena stared at the row of case binders on her shelf. “Can I meet him?”
“His lawyer says no.”
“Can Ruth?”
“No.”
“Can anyone?”
“His daughter, apparently.”
After the call, Elena found Nia in the file room.
“He withdrew,” Elena said.
Nia nodded. “He called me last night.”
“You spoke to him?”
“For forty seconds.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He asked whether I knew a criminal-defense lawyer who wasn’t connected to the firm.”
“And?”
“I gave him three names.”
“You should have told me.”
“He specifically asked me not to.”
“This is our witness.”
“He’s a person before he’s your witness.”
Elena shut the file-room door. “He could collapse the chain of custody.”
“He could go to prison.”
“So could Victor.”
“That isn’t Adrian’s job.”
“He helped Victor.”
“Yes.”
“He altered records.”
“Yes.”
“Eleven people died.”
Nia looked at her for a long moment. “You think saying the number ends the conversation.”
“It should matter.”
“It does matter. So does the fact that Adrian has a nine-year-old daughter who thinks he works late because he’s important.”
Elena’s anger shifted, looking for somewhere easier to land. “You knew about the billing.”
“I suspected Victor had leverage.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I had no evidence.”
May you like
“You tell me suspicions all the time.”
“Not when they can destroy someone.”
